Herman Verbist, a Belgian lawyer, was born in 1959 and studied at the Universities of Brussels and Leuven in Belgium, as well as at the University of Tübingen in Germany and King's College, London, in England. He obtained his doctorate in law at the University of Ghent, Belgium, in 2008 with a doctoral thesis on 'De rechtsbescherming van partijen in privaatrechtelijke handelsarbitrage' (The Legal protection of the parties in commercial arbitration under private law). He was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 1983 and to the Ghent Bar in 2007. From 1988 to 1996, he held the position of counsel at the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He then returned to practice as a lawyer, currently with the firm Everest attorneys. He specializes mainly in domestic and international arbitration and has acted both as counsel and arbitrator in arbitration proceedings under the ICC Rules of Arbitration and under the rules of other arbitration institutions and also in 'ad hoc' arbitrations. From 1996 until 2013, he has been visiting professor for the course on international arbitration at the University of Ghent, in Belgium, and since 1998 he has been a consultant with the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO in Geneva. He is a member of the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (CEPANI) and of the Board of CEPANI, and also a member of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS), the French Arbitration Committee, the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), the London Court of International Arbitration, the American Arbitration Association, the Belgian-German Association of Lawyers, the European Lawyers Association, the International Bar Association, of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration and of its Publications Advisory Board. He is on the lists of arbitrators of a number of arbitration institutions in different countries (Madrid Court of Arbitration, International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Court of Arbitration attached to the Polish Chamber of Commerce, Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Arbitration Court attached to the Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic and Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic, Permanent Arbitration Court of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, International Roster of Arbitrators and Mediators of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association, Jerusalem Arbitration Center in association with the International Chamber of Commerce, Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Singapore International Arbitration Centre). As a representative of CEPANI, he participates in the working group of UNCITRAL on arbitration and conciliation. He is contributor for Belgium to the online UNCITRAL Guide on the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 1958).
Erik Schäfer, a German lawyer who qualified for the Bar in 1987, was born in 1957 and studied at the Universities of Freiburg (Germany), Dijon (France) and London (England). He is admitted to practise in all local and district courts in Germany and in all of Germany's higher regional courts. He began his career in 1988 as counsel at the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris. In 1992, he took up a position as an in-house lawyer in the intellectual property department of a company and in 1993 moved to the Dresden office of a law firm specializing in competition law, intellectual property law and commercial law. In 1997, he joined Cohausz & Florack, a Düsseldorf inter-professional law firm, which handles all aspects of intellectual property and advises on the protection and exploitation of technology and scientific know-how, and of which he is now a partner. Erik Schäfer also represents parties in arbitral proceedings and acts as arbitrator. In addition, Erik Schäfer is a trained mediator. He was recently appointed member of the board of trustees of the DIAC. He is on the list of arbitrators of the VIAC, the SIAC, the KLRCA, and the Danish Institute of Arbitration. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the German Arbitration Institute (DIS), the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), the Club Español del Arbitraje, the German intellectual property rights association GRUR, the German branch of the Licensing Executives Society (LES), and the International Bar Association. As German delegate to the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, he has participated in various task forces and co-chairs the task force on information technology in arbitration and expertise proceedings.
